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Jackie Robinson: National League
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In 1949, Jackie Robinson won the National League batting title and the National League's Most Valuable Player Award. In 1950, Robinson earned $35,000 and was the highest paid Brooklyn Dodger at the time.
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At the same time, Jackie Robinson was ... deeply concerned with the struggle for civil rights. Starting in 1957, he traveled extensively to raise funds for the NAACP. These efforts led to close relationships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other prominent leaders. He was also a staunch supporter of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. His concern with politics led him to influence leaders such as Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon; Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller. In 1964, he resigned from Chock Full O' Nuts to work full time on the campaign of Governor Rockefeller, who later appointed him as Special Assistant of Community Affairs.
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Robinson joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1945 for a reported $400 a month. Although he soon became one of the league's top players, he was not fond of the low pay and relentless traveling and apparently had no intention of making baseball a career. That attitude was changed due to the efforts of Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey. Starting in 1943, Rickey had been searching for a black player to bring into the major leagues, which were closed to blacks at the time. Dodger owner Walter O'Malley stated in Harvey Frommer's book Rickey & Robinson: "Branch wanted Jackie because he knew Jackie had absolutely fierce pride and determination."
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Robinson became even more active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He became a vocal supporter of Martin Luther King Jr. and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. At King's request Robinson went to Albany to speak after two black churches were burned there in August 1962 at the height of the Albany Movement. Robinson headed a national campaign to raise money to rebuild the Albany churches and a burned church in Lee County, ultimately collecting $50,000. Later that summer, he drew new attention to the movement by speaking at the annual convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Perhaps the cruelest blow to Robinson occurred in 1971, when his son, Jackie Jr., died in a car accident. Three years earlier, the younger Robinson had been arrested for heroin possession due to an addiction he had developed--and later kicked--after being wounded in Vietnam. Jackie Sr. remained active in national campaigns against drug addiction right up to his own death.
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Apart from being black another factor that went against Jackie Robinson was that he was 27 years old. It was unusual for someone to make his major league debut at this age. He was famous for not backing down when faced with the most difficult of circumstances. As a lieutenant in the Army he risked a court-martial by refusing to sit in the back of a military bus.
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